The Race for the U.S. Senate

The Midterms are almost here. Who will control the House is still too close to call. That likely is not the case for the U.S. Senate.

Currently, the Senate is comprised of 51 Republicans, 47 Democrats and 2 Independents who vote with the Democrats on every significant issue.

The Republicans are poised to pick up 2 to 4 U.S. Senate seats and will likely walk away with 53 to 55 Republicans in the U.S. Senate.

Observers will say that those potential pick-ups are seats in states where Trump won decisively. They are right. That, however, brings up the larger point.

In the Red State/Blue State divide, currently, there are significantly more Red States than Blue States. As for the number of Governors, there are 33 Republicans, 16 Democrats, and 1 Independent. That is a testament to the fact that there is at least 27 reliable Red States and even more states that lean Republican.

That dynamic gives Republicans a natural advantage in the U.S. Senate. It also means that the pick-ups this year are natural Republican seats coming home.

One last note. Consider the continuing brilliance of the Founders system – Founders who were well aware of the Fall of the Roman Republic and Greek Democracy. They understood that runaway democracy fueled by populism was a danger to freedom. It is also why historians like Will Durant were fond of saying each government perishes by an excess of its basic principle .

By allowing for divided government, the Founders assured that the federal government cannot move too quickly in any one direction or another. Their system has worked to a greater degree than any other.